A common power transmission network can be viewed as having three (3) main segments. A distribution access network of medium voltage power lines, configured in a loop and several miles in length, connects a standard power substation to an area of homes and businesses. At various points on the loop, step down transformers provide a series of 110-240 V low voltage access lines, depending on the country, to a small number of homes and/or businesses. At the end of each one of these lines, a meter or meters is typically present for each electricity customer served by that line. On the other side of each meter is a typical in-home or in-building electricity distribution network, which is contained inside a home or business. It can be seen that all three of the network segments could possibly be used to transmit high-speed data across.
Powerline networks are inherently very noisy, and they are also susceptible to power surges, brownouts, and other events that may be detrimental to devices connected to it. Sophisticated communication methods have been developed to be able to mitigate and overcome the noise, so that high-speed communication is now possible. There are also devices that are available, and have been for a long time, that provide capabilities for surge protection, or line conditioning, or both. Unfortunately many of these devices, when connected to the powerline network, will cause data communication to be severely degraded, or not possible at all, when trying to communicate through these devices.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a device or system that will route the powerline communications signals around the surge protection and/or line conditioning device while still providing these features, that can improve, high-speed data communication on the network. Currently, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based communication methods are available and used in various types of mediums, both wired and wireless. This method has inherent characteristics that make it well suited for dealing with noisy and changing environments, but any improvements in the communication channel that can be achieved through additional methods will improve communication quality and performance. Additionally, any device that can manage its own noise (i.e., is “self-aware”), further improves the communications performance.